Canonical Launches Bazaar Commercial Support

Canonical's Bazaar Gets Commercial Support

December 10, 2009

At the heart of every serious software development project is the use of
some kind of version control code repository. For Ubuntu Linux, that
version control system is its own Bazaar (bzr) system, which make it easier
for the project to encourage and manage developer participation.

Now thanks to a new effort from Ubuntu's commercial sponsor Canonical,
Bazaar is now set to receive commercial support.

Ubuntu itself began using bzr as the system by which it builds its Linux
distribution beginning with the Jaunty
Jackalope release earlier this year.

The new Canonical Bazaar commercial support offering will include
services to enable developers to both manage and deploy the tool.
Additionally, Canonical will be offering conversion and consultation
services in an effort to help users of other version control systems move to
the bzr solution.

The market of code versioning software is a competitive one with open
source solutions such as Concurrent Versioning System (CVS), Subversion (SVN), Git and
merc
urial all vying for adoption.

Canonical isn't looking to woo just open source users, however: It also
sees IBM Rational ClearCase users as potential target as well.

The commercially supported version of Bazaar is the same as the open
source version that is freely available. However, there are a number of
challenges that organization can face when attempting to migrate to bzr,
which is why Canonical sees a need for its support services.

For example, there's a hurdle in converting code from one repository to
another without any losses or developer confusion, Martin Pool, Bazaar's
manager at Canonical, told InternetNews.com.

Pool also noted that getting familiar with the overall system can
potentially be an issue, so Canonical will have a training service to help
developers get up to speed.